“We search the internet everyday looking for the very best of What’s Happening, primarily on Manhattan’s WestSide, so that you don’t have to.” We make it as easy as1-2-3.
For future NYC Events be sure to check the tab above: “Notable NYC Events-April”

Have time for only one NYC Event today? Do this:

ASPEN SANTA FE BALLET (through April 30).at the Joyce Theater, 175 8th Ave./ 2PM, +7:30PM; $61-$81
“Aspen Santa Fe Ballet returns to the Joyce with three New York premieres and its usual penchant for contemporary ballet. Formed in Aspen in 1996 with just seven dancers, the company — under the artistic direction of the former Joffrey dancer Tom Mossbrucker and the executive direction of Jean-Philippe Malaty — shows off its sleek, athletic sensibility. Along with Cayetano Soto’s “Huma Rojo,” a humorous homage to the women in Mr. Soto’s life, the company performs Alejandro Cerrudo’s “Silent Ghost” and Cherice Barton’s “Eudaemonia.” (GIA KOURLAS – NYT)

More than 60 vendors will serve samples of their delicious dishes, divine drinks, and dazzling desserts. This is Queens, America’s most ethnically diverse county, so expect Cypriot, French, Georgian, Indian, Italian, Japanese, Kosher, Malaysian, Moldovan, Paraguayan, Peruvian, Puerto Rican, and Thai cuisine! And if you need a beverage Chris Murillo, who owns the local distillery Queens Courage, will mix gin-based drinks. In addition, four wine purveyors will pour and at least seven beer products will be on tap. Tea totalers will be able to quench their thirst with – what else? — bubble tea provided by Chatime.

Tickets ($125 each or two for $200) are available at http://www.thequeenstaste.com. Proceeds support the Queens Economic Development Corporation’s ongoing efforts to attract, create, and maintain jobs in the borough. As QEDC is a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit, proceeds are tax deductible as permitted by law.

For more information, call Rob MacKay at 718.263.0546 or send him an email via rmackay@queensny.org.
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Music, Dance, Performing Arts

NEW YORK CITY BALLET (through May 28).at the NYS/DHK Theater, Lincoln Center / 3PM, $30+
“As part of its four-week Here/Now festival, the company spotlights three of today’s most inventive ballet choreographers, who have done some of their finest work at City Ballet. Each gets a program of his own: Christopher Wheeldon on Friday and Saturday evening; Alexei Ratmansky on Saturday afternoon and Tuesday; and Justin Peck on Sunday and Wednesday. And the spring gala on Thursday will include one of the season’s most anticipated offerings, a premiere by Mr. Ratmansky to music by Leonid Desyatnikov.” (GIA KOURLAS – NYT)

Duke Ellington Orchestra: Celebrating Duke & Ella’s 100th BirthdaysBlue Note, 131 W3rd St./ 8PM, +10:30PM, $30, $45
“Considered one of the greatest American composers in history, Duke Ellington and his music influenced millions of people over the course of his 50-year career. Thanks to a body of work that transcends boundaries and renews itself through every generation of fans and music lovers, his legacy lives on and will endure for generations to come.

Ellington’s popular compositions set the bar for generations of brilliant jazz, pop, theater, and soundtrack composers to come. He is best remembered for the over 3,000 songs that he composed during his lifetime, including “It Don’t Mean a Thing if It Ain’t Got That Swing,” “Sophisticated Lady,” “Mood Indigo,” “Solitude,” “In a Mellow Tone,” and “Satin Doll.”

Although Ellington himself has passed, his music lives on, as does the orchestra that bears his name. A world-class big band, The Duke Ellington Orchestra continues to perform Duke’s music at venues worldwide, preserving the legacy of one of this country’s greatest national treasures.”

Keeping Up with the Times: Technology in ArchaeologyMuseum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Ave./ 2PM, $20
“Traditionally, archaeology has been a low-tech pursuit, using trowels, strings, line levels and measuring tapes to record finds. However, thanks to cutting-edge new technology, the field has recently been undergoing a seismic shift. At their 37th annual co-sponsored program, the Professional Archaeologists of New York City (PANYC) and the Museum of the City of New York present five leading archaeologists who will discuss the high-tech tools that they are using for archaeological surveying, site recording and modeling — and how archeologists are now making their findings virtually accessible to us all.” (ThoughtGallery.org)

Sakura Matsuri Cherry Blossom FestivalBrooklyn Botanic Garden, 990 Washington Ave., Brooklyn / 10AM-6PM, $30
“Today, only those vulnerable to pollen’s seasonal assault dread the impending bloom of New York’s cherry blossoms. But, as depicted in the 1975 horror film “Under the Blossoming Cherry Trees,” the flowers were feared by some in ancient Japan, who avoided passing beneath their petals as stories spread of the trees driving travellers mad. The Brooklyn Botanic Garden is home to more than two hundred cherry trees across at least twenty-six species; this two-day festival, celebrating the blossoms’ arrival, is packed with performances reflecting both traditional and modern Japan, including taiko drumming, martial arts, and a cosplay fashion show. The biggest threat might be an ill-placed photobomb interrupting your well-framed shot, flush with pink.” (NewYorker)

FOOD + DRINK BACON AND BEER CLASSIC
If unlimited bacon and beer sounds heavenly to you, then buy yourself a ticket to this annual affair. You can taste dishes from more than 40 restaurants, including whiskey­glazed ribs from Salt & Bone, bacon chocolate chunk from Bang
Cookies, and bacon meatball pops from The Baroness Bar. Pair those bites with beers from Big Alice Brewing, Coney Island Brewing, Fire Island Beer Co. and others.
WHEN Saturday, April 29, and Sunday, April 30,
WHERE at Citi Field, 123­01 Roosevelt Ave., Queens
INFO $69­ $79;baconandbeerclassic.com ­­(STAV ZIV-Newsday)

=====================================================Bonus NYC events– Jazz Venues:
Many consider NYCity the Jazz capital of the world. Here are my favorite Jazz clubs, all on Manhattan’s WestSide. Check out who is playing tonight:

Special Mention:Caffe Vivaldi – 32 Jones St. nr Bleecker St. — caffevivaldi.com / 212-691-7538
a classic, old jazz club in the Village, Caffe V often surprises with a wonderfully eclectic lineup. It’s my favorite spot for an evening of listening enjoyment and discovery.

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♦ Before making final plans, we suggest you call the venue to confirm ticket availability, dates and times, as schedules are subject to change.
♦ NYCity, with a population of 8.5 million, had a record 60 million visitors last year and was TripAdvisor’s Traveler’s Choice Top U.S. Destination for 2017. Quality shows draw crowds.
Try to reserve seats for these top NYC events in advance, even if just on day of performance.

NYCity Vacation Travel Guide Video (Expedia):

Chelsea Art Gallery District*

Chelsea is the heart of the NYCity contemporary art scene. Home to more than 300 art galleries, the Rubin Museum, the Joyce Theater and The Kitchen performance spaces, there is no place like it anywhere in the world. Come here to browse free exhibitions by world-renowned artists and those unknowns waiting to be discovered in an art district that is concentrated between West 18th and West 27th Streets, and 10th and 11th Avenues. Afterwards stop in the Chelsea Market, stroll on the High Line, or rest up at one of the many cafes and bars and discuss the fine art.

“Peter Dreher has spent much of his career producing thousands of high-concept but technically exacting oil portraits of an empty water glass. This 84-year-old German painter’s latest show at Koenig & Clinton collects seven decades’ worth of his treatment of skulls, instead.

The works range from a 1947 watercolor with an upward gaze of doomed innocence to six 10-foot-wide black-and-gray gouaches, made between 2005 and 2007, that manage to look equally like punk-chic bedspreads and coolly abstract reckonings with wartime atrocity. They have a strange, motion-activated flicker, their more or less reflective skulls passing in and out of view as you shift your position.

This subtle formal paradox — a suggestion that black and white, as equal partners in a singular action of contrast, are essentially interchangeable — is a good lead-in to the back room, which holds 15 recent head-on views. Painted in thin, overlapping layers of white gouache, these skulls look like X-rays printed on celluloid. They vary widely in their particulars: One has a jackal’s grimace and a cleft chin, another a severe underbite and eight separately articulated lower teeth. But hanging them all in a line makes those details read as passing accidents, like the constantly mutating patterns of a tide pool.

Standing in front of them, I had what felt like a Buddhist revelation: For a moment, I could see that impermanence was inextricable from form.” (WILL HEINRICH)

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For a listing of 25 essential galleries in the Chelsea Art Gallery District, organized by street, which enables you to create your own Chelsea Art Gallery crawl, see the Chelsea Gallery Guide (nycgo.com) Or check out TONY magazine’s list of the “Best Chelsea Galleries” and click through to see what’s on view.

*Now plan your own gallery crawl, but better to plan your visits for Tuesday through Saturday; most galleries are closed Sunday and Monday.

TIP: After your gallery tour, stop in Ovest at 513W27th St. for Aperitivo Italiano (Happy Hour on steroids). Discuss all the great art you have viewed over a drink and a very tasty selection of FREE appetizers (M-F, 5-8pm). OR try the NYT recommendation: “When you’re done, adjourn to the newly renovated Bottino , the Chelsea art world’s unofficial canteen on 10th Avenue (btw 24/25 St.) “

=======================================================For other selected Museum and Gallery Special Exhibitions see recent posts in right sidebar dated 04/28 and 04/26.